A brief-yet-ongoing journal of all things Carmi. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll reach for your mouse to click back to Google. But you'll be intrigued. And you'll feel compelled to return following your next bowl of oatmeal. With brown sugar. And milk.

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Thursday, January 19, 2017

Missing our buddy

Kids' best friendLondon, ONOctober 2016

It's been a month since we put Frasier down, and echoes of this crazy puppy who changed our lives continue to reverberate through our home. I still look for him when I wake up in the morning, still schedule my evenings around walks that no longer happen, and still think I hear him trying to break through the baby locks we once kept on the kitchen cabinets.

It's still sad. Not lose-an-immediate-human-family-member sad, of course, but a loss to our family all the same. And we often find ourselves tumbling into spontaneous conversations about what it was like to have him, and how much we miss him.

But then I come across pictures like this one - taken on Zach's birthday - and I can't help but smile. He added an incredible dimension to our kids' lives, and he helped make them better people by teaching them what huge, ongoing responsibility looked like, and what empathy and unconditional love felt like.

As hard as the silence can be, we're glad we had him at all, because these three amazing not-so-little people will always carry those lessons forward. And if a single picture can capture that, I suspect this one does.

4 comments:

Teaching responsibility, empathy, and unconditional love - YES. I think our pets also teach us how to grieve, if we are lucky enough to not lose a close family member or friend in our younger years. Our old black lab Moses, whom we adopted as an older dog a few years ago, is nearing his end. In some ways, not having him for his younger years makes the coming event easier (fewer memories) and in some ways, it will still be just as difficult to send him over the Rainbow Bridge.

I am sorry to hear about your loss. Frasier looks adorable and I know it's always so sad and hard to loss a beloved friend who have been part of our lives. So beautiful your words about Frasier and he will be sorely missed. I miss so much my dear and sweet Flora... I am sending you all hugs and comfort across the miles.